A very decent proposal

“Hey, so I have an interesting request,” McMinnville High School senior J.T. Barnes texted me.

“Shoot,” I replied.

The News-Register honored Barnes, who won an individual state championship for the Grizzlies’ wrestling team at 152 pounds, as the All-Valley Wrestler of the Year for 2013. Barnes was excited about the award, and he had something else on his mind: asking his girlfriend, Mac High senior Moira Hampson, to the prom.

So, Barnes wondered, was there a way to incorporate a prom invitation into his Wrestler of the Year photograph? Two birds, one stone.

It’s an unusual request, but the News-Register is equipped to handle such requests. On the day of the photo shoot, a sports reporter used a purple marker to scrawl “Moira…Prom?” below his collarbone while News-Register photographer Marcus Larson looked the other way.

Barnes was at a wrestling tournament in Las Vegas when Friday’s edition came out, but the News-Register heard from readers: is that … writing on that boy’s chest? Is that really a prom invitation?

And, perhaps most importantly, did Moira say yes?

“Her mom brought (the paper) in at like 7 in the morning and brought it to her,” Barnes wrote to me on Monday night. “She saw it and then sent me like 10 text messages about how much she like it and how happy it made her.

“People I don’t know keep telling me how cool it was! It is by far the best promposal yet at my school!”

J.T. and Moira will be dancing the night away on Saturday at the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the site of the Mac High prom.